{"id":44,"date":"2019-02-25T00:38:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T05:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/?p=44"},"modified":"2019-03-17T16:10:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T20:10:41","slug":"the-fifth-element","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/structural-analyses\/the-fifth-element\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fifth Element"},"content":{"rendered":"

summary<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A Black screen transitions to 1914 Egypt. Two archaeologists\u2019 work at a tomb site is halted by an Egyptian priest. After the priest fails to halt their discovery, a race of aliens\u2014Mondoshawans\u2014touch down near the excavation site. They remove four stones and a sarcophagus. As the aliens are leaving, the tomb closes prematurely, trapping the key-bearing Mondoshawan in the tomb. The key-bearing Mondoshawan entrusts the priest with the key and the responsibility of passing on his knowledge to future generations.<\/p>\n

As the Mondoshawan predicted, the President of the Federated Territories is faced with an all-consuming evil Black orb 300 years in the future. The Mondoshawans, on their way to Earth to return the stones, are intercepted by Mangalores. The Mangalores, an alien race of warriors, have been hired by a human named Zorg to seize the stones to give to the incoming evil.<\/p>\n

The Mondoshawans\u2019 ship is destroyed, and human scientists are only able to salvage a severed hand. The Mangalores fail to retrieve the stones and Zorg sets off a bomb to punish them. Meanwhile the human scientists reassemble a superhuman, the Fifth Element, from the severed hand. The Fifth Element, who goes by Leeloo, escapes and encounters our protagonist: Korben Dallas.<\/p>\n

Korben delivers Leeloo to a descendent of the Egyptian priest and returns home. However, his former commander commissions him to locate the four stones needed to thwart the oncoming evil. As of a result, he travels to Fhloston Paradise with Leeloo in tow to retrieve the stones.<\/p>\n

Amidst playing talk-show guest to Ruby Rhod, Korben attends an opera featuring alien singer, Plavalaguna. Korben knows that Plavalaguna has the stones in her possession. However, both The Mangalores and Zorg are at Fhloston Paradise trying to get the stones as well.<\/p>\n

Zorg attacks Plavalaguna\u2019s attendants and Leeloo in pursuit of the stones. He takes an empty case but only realizes he doesn\u2019t have the stones when he has left Fhloston Paradise. When he realizes he\u2019s wrong, he returns and is killed by his own time bomb.<\/p>\n

The Mangalores attack the guests at Fhloston Paradise in search for the stones and Plavalaguna dies from a gunshot wound. Korben locates the stones inside her stomach and escapes the Mangalores in an action-packed sequence with Ruby Rhod\u2019s unwilling help. Korben and Ruby Rhod find Leeloo, who has been grievously wounded, and the priest. With a 2-hour deadline until the end of the world, Korben, Ruby Rhod, the priest, and Leeloo fly back to Earth on Zorg\u2019s ship.<\/p>\n

They configure the stones around Leeloo and effectively halt the attack of the unnamed evil. Earth is saved. The movie ends as the President of the Federated Territories is attempting to thank Leeloo and Korben but cannot because they\u2019re having sex.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

analysis<\/h4>\n

This scene features a close shot from below. The top of Korben Dallas\u2019s profile, his hand around Ruby Rhod\u2019s neck and Ruby\u2019s face are all visible in the shot. The light is mostly on the right side of Ruby\u2019s face and the rest of his face is in shadow. The top of Ruby\u2019s hair is cut off in this shot. The surrounding walls are entirely dark grey, adding to the shadow cast around Ruby\u2019s face. The frame is mostly Ruby Rhod\u2019s face, but Korben\u2019s hand choking him is more centered than Ruby\u2019s reactive expression.<\/p>\n

I chose this scene because it spoke to the movie\u2019s representations of Black masculinity and Ruby Rhod\u2019s relationship to Korben Dallas as a black male character. Specifically, Ruby Rhod is positioned as a frivolous character, provided mostly for comedic relief and entertainment. However, we see that Ruby plays an integral role to the plot of the movie and advances Korben\u2019s goals despite the derisive manner that Korben treats him. Moreover, in both his behavior and dress, Ruby Rhod is coded as hypersexual and queer, but harmless. This deconstruction of the stereotypical Black hypermasculine character works entirely to emphasize Korben\u2019s apparent \u2018manliness\u2019 by casting him as the traditional white macho-man action character.<\/p>\n

In this shot, the phallic shape of Ruby\u2019s hair is obscured\u2014literally cut off\u2014by the act of being lifted off the ground. Korben\u2019s hand is clamped around his neck and holding him both in air and against the wall. Korben is literally able to \u2018castrate\u2019 Ruby. As such, the focal point becomes Korben\u2019s show of strength and domination, despite the frame being mostly Ruby Rhod\u2019s body. This frame is representative of their relationship throughout the film as Korben is represented as a dominant male and Ruby functions only to underscore this dominance.<\/p>\n

The brutish force that Korben uses on Ruby may speak to the inability of Black people to escape violence, even in the realm of technology. In other words, violent forces that have plagued Black people throughout time can infiltrate the digital and control both representations and quite literally\u2014as Korben shows through his choking hand\u2014the Black body.<\/p>\n

Movie Time: 1:14:46<\/p>\n

***P.S. Chris Tucker is 6’1” and Bruce Willis is 6’0”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

summary A Black screen transitions to 1914 Egypt. Two archaeologists\u2019 work at a tomb site is halted by an Egyptian priest. After the priest fails to halt their discovery, a race of aliens\u2014Mondoshawans\u2014touch down near the excavation site. They remove four stones and a sarcophagus. As the aliens are leaving, the tomb closes prematurely, trapping … Continue reading “The Fifth Element”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-structural-analyses"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/iio1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}